Saturday, June 14, 2008

Vampire: The Requiem

So I recently started playing Vampire: The Requiem with a new group (and by new, I mean, they've played maybe once; some of them have never played at all). It's nice to be back in the comfy chair. Seeing the looks on people's faces when something cool or dangerous happens to their character, seeing the investment each player has made in the "storyteller" characters and the plot, and reading the next day about how awesome the game was (on facebook), all bring me back to a happy Games place.

Also, Dungeons and Dragons' fourth edition came out a couple of weeks ago, and it's taken over my brain. We'll be alternating between D&D4 and V:TR for a while, until we get a good feel for the group and the group dynamics, which game we like better, and just how long I can keep a Vampire chronicle going without killing everyone in my Machiavellian schemes...

Edmonton is a growing city. The oil brings the companies, the companies bring the jobs, the jobs bring people, and people bring parasites. Kindred from all over the North American west have made dangerous treks to relocate in the booming city, leading to a population crisis, and increase in abandoned childer, and an unstable political situation.

Susannah is a neonate, abandoned by her careless sire who used her in a fit of passion and cast her aside. The Matron, appointed by Prince Zahir to care for young neonates much as a nanny might care for discarded children, takes the girl under her wing. She has Sara, a friend-of-a-friend, accompany the young one to The Bank, where Vanessa can prepare her better for her requiem.

The Matron is not the only one with interest in Susannah. Marcus, Baron of Old Strathcona, employs the hermit information broker Allen to discover what he can of Susannah's existence, her origin, and what she may mean to the Prince. Ian, the Baron of Mill Woods, hires two lone-wolf gangrel to kill her, kill her sire, and burn down the Black Dog Pub while they're at it. Masked men try to gun her down. Gypsies have her kidnapped. Lupines capture her in her sleep so that she can be bargained away to the city Kindred... Who is this girl, and what does she mean to (or for) the established power, that so many would give so much to have/kill her?

I will be writing more on this as we play. I may write something about the themes and undertones of the series (I'm thinking primarily abandonment and agency - in a post-modern sense - but we'll see how it goes).